Wicks.Teachers and Students

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How to Start an Online Program
Breakout Session: Teachers and Students (Rob Darrow and Debi Crabtree)



Rob Darrow, Ed.D.
Principal, Clovis Online School
Robdarrow@cusd.com
Office: 559.327.4400
Fax: 559.327.4490
www.clovisonlineschool.com
@robdarrow (Twitter)

Debi Crabtree
Coordinator, Hamilton County Virtual School
crabtree_d@hcde.org
Office: 423.209.8804
Cell: 423.443.5414
www.hcvs.us
www.hcvs.wikispaces.com
debidcrabtree (Skype)
@debid (LinkedIn)
@debid (Twitter)

Stats from Matthew Wicks about group at the session:
67% have blended programs
73% have supplemental programs
48% have full-timeprograms
54% district-based programs
  • 54% enroll students from all over the state
18% charter schools
15% enroll students from entire state

Breakout Session 1:
Three areas of focus:
  • Professional development
  • Infrastructure to build a successful foundation for online learning
  • Student support

Discussion:
  • Using course management system one focus of PD. Using student information system and online tools are another.
  • Teaching in an online environment is different from F2F teaching. Have to be "guide on the side," not "sage on the stage"
  • Student support
  • Rob sees his teachers face-to-face once a month. Does not do a lot of formal PD. Has 25 adjunct teachers. Paid according to number of students.
  • Clovis High School has online teaching institute (linked below). Has teachers interested in online teaching attend this institute and he hires his teachers based on performance in this institute. Teacher talks about how to structure her day as an online teacher, etc.
  • Rob looking at common assessment items: attendance, work completion of students, etc. Ongoing development of this
  • Clovis creates own courseware in wikis using Moodle to avoid cost of packaged courses.
  • One participant said her program launched without SIS and decisions made about content and program was a train wreck
  • Boise State U has good online PD model
  • Virtual High School has a 6 to 8 week course for online PD
  • Consortium model helps spread out costs
  • Clovis pays teachers to development their online content
  • Clovis uses ovia.com for surveys and assessments
  • Clovis uses Google docs and iGoogle. Does not have an SIS
  • HCVS uses GeniusSIS for student information system
  • HCVS uses CompassLearning for most of its K-12 courses. Currently writing for approval for Carone Fitness courses and Tell Me More (Auralog, Inc.) for foreign language and ESL English
  • HCVS encourage teachers to use real time face-to-face tools like Skype, Dimdim and UStream.tv during one or two office hours a week to get deeper, richer conversation with students.
  • Good idea to have agreement in place with teachers about online school's expectation of their staying for the duration of the course
  • Personal learning networks (PLNs) the new model of professional development across many companies and disciplines. Should encourage online teachers to network with others in their online schools as well as online teachers across schools
  • Can require teachers to take "how to facilitate an online course" type of session in order to teach online pedagogy and tools
  • Some programs do not want teachers to develop a course until they have taught an online course two or three times (Missouri)
  • Online schools are on a continuum. Will be always in progress
  • Appendix A in Management and Operations of Online Programs: Ensuring Quality and Accountability. "Online Learning: The Opportunities It Can Provide; The Problems It Can Solve" -- A list of needs online schools can meet. Good way to focus your program.
  • Figure 1: Attributes of Online Programs from Promising Practices (David Glick) a helpful tool for looking at one's overall program.
  • Global schools worry about using so many different tools from numerous providers. Some LMSs offer greater functionality.

Breakout Session 2
  • Marketing the services of the online school
  • Student support
  • Professional development

Discussion
  • HCVS marketed the program originally by traveling to districts across the state and presenting to Boards of Education, groups of teachers and guidance counselors, principals, etc. to showcase the services the Virtual School could offer the district (credit recovery, teacher shortages, more electives, equity to rural students, etc.)
  • HCVS invited teachers in the districts to facilitate the courses if the district desired
  • HCVS pays Onsite Facilitators in buildings who are trained by HCVS and who follow and support the online students in their buildings and proctor exams
  • One participant believes this is double-dipping, see the enrollment in online courses as part of the counselor's duty. In Hamilton County, guidance counselors see the HCVS work as an add-on to their work
  • Clovis keeps its focus on student success and providing greater opportunities to students
  • Participant from California says that he is constantly fighting with the teachers' union. Teachers are fearful that online courses will replace F2F schools
  • Clovis does up front interviews with students to try to let them know what is needed to be successful in online program
  • Rob says students needs caring parent or mentor at home to be successful in full-time online school
  • Time management and organizational skills of the individual learners are hugely important to success in online school
  • For major paradigm shifts for teachers and organizations, make those affected by the new program be developers of the new program. Then they will own it at the end
  • Clovis requires students new to the program to attend some F2F lab sessions at the beginning. Finds that the first four to six weeks is critical. Students need to be fully supported in this early time.
  • Proctored tests help ensure academic integrity
  • Teachers keep office hours and teachers can proctor exams during office hours. Gives them some face time with the students. Online teachers required to be at the lab every day all day and go to home schools to proctor tests and meet with students after their regular school hours
  • Clovis and HCVS create short tutorials for students targeting specific tech issues and learning that students need to be successful
  • HCVS does formal professional development for teachers about twice a year and then Lead Teacher and SIS Manger give targeted mentoring or just-in-time mentoring based on needs as made evident in teacher scores on checkpoints (see Checkpoint Rubric below)
  • Ideally, Rob says, an online teacher is mentored over the course of a full year of online teaching and then certificated at the end of the mentoring period.
  • Clovis building three professional learning communities - 6 to 8 teachers per group, create common assessments, plan together

Breakout Session 3
  • Teacher recruitment and payment
  • Financial models
  • Collaborative authoring of online courses

Discussion
  • Clovis pays teachers four times per year on a sliding scale. ($300 per student per year up to $5000 stipend.) Through charter school model in California can contract and partner with others to share costs. HCVS pays teachers at end of each semester (fall, spring, summer) based on enrollment at that time. HCVS's program is tuition-based and also receives funding from Title I to serve free and reduced students. Another school pays a base salary for so many students and then $20 per student over that base number
  • HCVS caps new teachers at 15 students in two sections; 20 students in two sections for experienced teachers
  • One California school pays base salary plus performance pay based on three-page rubric, completion rates, collaboration, retentions, state tests, parent and student evaluations
  • Political involvement is key to growth of online school


Breakout Session 4
  • Developing and supporting online teachers
  • Strategies for supporting various learners online
  • Statistics and tools for parents and students -- making the case for online learning

Discussion
  • K-12 Online Conference -- free online annual conference. All their stuff is archived
  • Global Education Conference.com - also a free online conference. Can find events like this all through the year that are free and offer PD to online teachers
  • Many, many online resources to support online teachers
  • Small "tests" for whether or not a teacher will be successful online includes requiring them to submit an electronic application and doing a first interview using a web tool like Skype or online chat
  • Clovis requires perspective students to go online and complete questionnaire about learning styles and strengths. Also has students do ten lessons online to see if that is what they want to do and have the self-discipline to see it through
  • Constant, consistent communication is key to online student success -- email, chat, IMs, email to text, phone text, Skype, phone calls

Breakout Session 5
  • Teacher selection and support
  • Vendor courseware selection
  • Funding online schools/addressing issues of access

Discussion
  • Clovis gets independent studies funding. All student full-time. All teachers part-time.
  • HCVS is fully supplemental working in partnership with public and private schools and home-school umbrella organizations that grant credit.
  • HCVS guarantees that all teachers are certified and highly qualified in their content area. Must apply to the state for approval of all online courses being offered in the district for credit
  • Good consortium model is VHS, Inc. Future of California online schools, says Rob, is in working with each other

Teacher Support (training, professional development, and evaluation)

Ten-minute videos on 27 distance learning topics by Dr. Curt Bonk, Professor in Instructional Systems Technology for Indiana University
Click here for more information.

Teacher evaluation - formal and informal - iNACOL How to Start and Online Program website


Teacher recruitment -iNACOL How to Start and Online Program website

  • Direct contact of teachers
  • Information on Website
  • Create a (free) Online Teacher Institute for any teacher to learn about online teaching

Student support/motivation -iNACOL How to start an online program website


Student Support Checklists
Free Web 2.0 tools for "face time," desktop/whiteboard sharing, real-time collaboration

Free Web 2.0 tools for development of online tutorials

Student recruitment - iNACOL How to start an online program website

  • Google Forms Tutorial -- Use Google Forms to easily collect data from your students, parents, teachers, school communities.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity Policy.doc
-- HCVS Academic Integrity Policy
Responsible Use Policy - Clovis Online School (Defines cheating)

Student/Parent Orientation

Parent Involvement Continuum - - Clovis Online School